The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud; read by Miranda Raison (Lockwood & Co.; book 1)

England has a Problem. About 50 years ago, ghosts started appearing. These aren't the poor, lost souls who just need help finishing up one little thing before they can cross over with the help of Jennifer Love Hewitt. These are dangerous ghosts. Some are more dangerous than others, true, but they can all kill you. In fact, by and large, they want to kill you. Also, they can only be seen by children. Of course, you can't fight what you can't see, so the ghost hunters (or "operatives") are all children. Generally, the kids act under the direction of an adult supervisor who can't see the ghosts, but is usually a former operative who does have experience in these things and can provide direction and advice.
Lucy Carlyle's supervisor in her small town is of questionable competence, and she leaves for London after a terrible incident. There are many psychic detection agencies in London, including the two largest, oldest, and most famous -- The Fittes Agency and the Rotwell Agency. Neither hire her. She does get hired by Lockwood & Co., becoming their third member. (The last one died.) There are no adult supervisors at Lockwood & Co., just Anthony Lockwood (who has impressive Sight), George Cubbins (who has great research skills), and Lucy (who can Hear and Sense better than either of them). The agency is in dire straights after Lucy burns down a haunted house (and acquires a murder mystery), so they can't really turn down the next -- very generous -- offer. There's more to the case than meets the eye, however, and more than ghosts to fear.
I enjoy a good horror book. This one, unlike most middle grade horror, occasionally spooked me. I can't put a finger on why. Maybe it was because I was listening to it instead of reading it myself. Probably it was because it was just downright creepy.
Miranda Raison's narration is excellent, with good pacing and clear pronunciation. Each character has a distinct and consistent voice, and you can hear the emotions in the dialog.
Located in the children's area, this book would work well for teens as well as middle graders.
A word of warning -- these books come out in the U.K. before they come out here in the USA. You may find yourself in for a frustrating wait as new books are announced.
--Diane Brown

Rot and Ruin

Rot and Ruin, by Jonathan Maberry, is the first book in a series, though it reads well on its own. It's a coming-of-age story set 14 years after the Zombie apocalypse. In this story, the zombies are more of a backdrop to the dynamics of family and friendship, of growing up convinced of the rightness of your opinions and having experience cast those opinions into doubt.

The book focuses on 15 year old Benny Imura. Benny was only 18 months old on First Night, but he remembers the important part -- his dad reanimating, his mom handing him to his much older half-brother, Tom, and telling Tom to run. He even remembers what his mom was wearing -- a white blouse with red sleeves. And he remembers that Tom ran. He didn't help Benny's mom, not then, not ever. Benny hates him for that. Everyone in their new hometown of Mountainside thinks that Tom is some sort of super brave guy, but Benny knows the truth -- Tom is nothing but a coward. He's also a bounty hunter (he prefers the term "closure specialist") who kills zoms. He never talks about it, though, so Benny's pretty sure he does it in a cowardly way. Not like bounty hunters Charley Matthias and the Motor City Hammer. They're always talking about how they kill zoms, sometimes even going mano-a-mano! They're cool. They're real men. Not like Tom.

When, at 15, Benny has to get a job or have his rations cut in half, he ends up apprenticing to Tom. What he learns on that first "closure" gives him pause for thought. A mission to find a feral girl and shut down the infamous "Gameland" has him re-evaluating his most deeply held beliefs about Tom, about First Night, about what makes a monster -- and what makes a hero. Available in print, audio CD, and downloadable eBook, Rot and Ruin is a zombie novel well worth the read.

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestly

 

 

Description:

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror is a loosely connected collection of short stories framed by the larger questions of how Montague has come into possession of his odd assortment of belongings, why he tells the stories he does, and who the odd children in the woods are. Each story is introduced in the story preceding it as Edgar, the narrator, asks about this or that object in Montague's sitting room.

 

Summary:

Edgar visits his peculiar Uncle Montague regularly, walking through the woods to get to the house. When he arrives, Uncle Montague always asks if Edgar saw anyone on the way, and Edgar always answers, "No." After all, it's not worth mentioning the strange, silent, town children who watch him pass. And walking past them, odd as they are, is a price Edgar is willing to pay for his uncle's stories. There's a story for every object in Uncle Montague's sitting room. The pocket watch from a boy who climbed a tree he wasn't supposed to and disappeared. The tiny doll from the doll house that trapped a woman in a room that isn't there. The demon book end that torments its thief. Curiously, Uncle Montague tells these fanciful stories as if they were true. Finally, Edgar learns the terrible truth about Uncle Montague, and the children in the woods. Uncle Montague, it turns out, was once the headmaster of a school. He was also a gambler. And while he was a decent card player, he still went through all of his savings. Needing more gambling money, he stole from the children at his school. To cover his thefts, he blamed a student, William. William pleaded with Montague to declare his innocence, but Montague refused, and William took his own life. Montague's punishment is to have the ghostly children that Edgar sees in the woods -- not town children at all! -- bring him objects and tell him their stories.

 

Thoughts:

I enjoyed this collection. The ending is satisfactory, and left me wanting to read more of the author's work. A couple of stories deal with demons or other evil/Satanic creatures, which are depicted as cruel, manipulative, and bad. Overall, it's more Edgar Allan Poe, less Stephen King. 

Recommended for middle schoolers looking for scary stories.

Draculas : a novel of terror by Jack Kilborn, F. Paul Wilson, Jeff Strand, and Blake Crouch (Joe Konrath, Jack Kilborn's real name, may also be listed as an author)

Draculas : A Novel of Terror is not for the faint of stomach. There are frequent, graphic descriptions of rather extreme violence, and nearly as frequent uses of profanity. There's no sparkling here. These are old school vampires. Also, a clown.

Draculas is told in multiple points of view, including that of some of the formerly-human monsters. It begins with a farmer's discovery of a skull in a Romanian field. The skull's teeth are fang-like. Could this be the famous Dracula? Probably not. Given that a) the dentition would result in the teeth tearing up the poor guy's face, and b) the farmer refuses to let scientists examine it on the grounds that it embodies an ancient curse, it's most likely a fake. Fake or not, Mortimer Moorecook, elderly, cancer stricken, and wealthy, wants it. He's hired Shanna the anthropologist to research both the skull and vampire lore, and buys the hideous thing for an undisclosed sum. He sends a specially made box to Romania for the skull to be shipped in. When it arrives, Shanna points out that the teeth are really too big for the mouth. Mortimer holds the skull for a moment, and then sinks the teeth into his neck. His nurse, Jenny, and Shanna rush Mortimer to the hospital, where he dies.
Just as Jenny is wondering whether calling her ex, Randall, was really such a good idea, Mortimer starts spitting out teeth and turns into a vampire -- a dracula, as Randall calls him. Randall's a lumberjack. (Some of them have taken to calling themselves "arborists", but Randall prefers "lumberjack.") He's in the hospital because he hit himself in the back of the leg with his chainsaw when a squirrel fell on his head. Fortunately, he drove himself to the hospital, so his chainsaw is in the parking lot, safe in his pickup. Unfortunately, the chainsaw is out of gas. Fortunately, out of gas chainsaws still do a pretty good number on draculas.
Shanna's boyfriend, Deputy Clay Theel, arrives at the hospital to pick up Shanna and Jenny. (Shanna's going to break up with him. She just can't take another gun show.) Unfortunately, the hospital is crawling with draculas. Fortunately, Clay was planning on taking Shanna to a gun show, so he has lots of guns on him. Unfortunately, you pretty much have to take a dracula's head off to kill it. Fortunately, Clay's guns take really big ammo. The automatic shotgun barely even kicks! (Not like Alice, a Taurus Raging Bull -- "the most powerful handgun in the world" according to Clay, who would know. Alice kicks like a mule.)
The draculas continue to feed, biting people, drinking their blood, even licking the stuff off the floor in their desperate hunger. Not everyone they bite turns into a dracula, of course. Some are too drained, or too ripped apart, to turn. Plenty do, though. Doctors, nurses, orderlies, patients. Men, women, children. (Why had her mother never told her that people are filled with red candy?) Clowns.
The novel works well as a whole, no mean feat for four authors. And it is a novel, not a collection of short stories. It's a fast read with short sections. Don't let the 300+ pages fool you, only about half is devoted to Draculas, the rest is extras: "making of", short stories, and the like.

Give to fans of gory horror, people looking for an anti-Twilight.

A Good and Happy Child : A Novel by Justin Evans

George Davies can't bring himself to touch his baby boy. After months of excuses, his wife tells him to get help or get out. Desperate to be a good father and to save his marriage, George agrees. He tells his therapist that this is not his first time seeing a psychiatrist. He saw one as a child. The therapist asks him to make journals of that time in his life, and George does so. As he writes of his childhood -- a recently deceased father, a magical Friend, an attempted murder, a strange death -- he wonders: did the therapy help, or the exorcism? Was his Friend the same entity that his father encountered in Guatemala? Is it threatening George's own son? And if it is coming for a third generation of Davies, how can George protect his son?
Told both as entries in George's journals and addresses to his therapist, referred to as "you", the story is easy to follow and engrossing. As a veteran of many a horror book, I was pleasantly surprised by the twist ending.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

The Heartland Wars are over. A compromise was reached between the pro-life and pro-choice crowds. Abortion is illegal, but there are still options. Parents can choose to have their 13-18 year old unwound, a process in which the child does not die, but every part is harvested for transplant. Naturally, some people have a problem with this. Namely, the kids who are going to be unwound. Kids like Connor and Risa. Connor is impulsive, always getting in fights and trouble at school. He gets suspicious when he finds three plane tickets to the Caribbean when there are four people in his family. Then he finds the unwind order. He runs away, gets caught, and causes a major traffic accident in the process of escaping. Risa grew up in a state home. Budget cuts mean that some kids have to be unwound. When she doesn't play her piano piece perfectly (she's been studying to be a classical pianist) she is told she'll be unwound. When her bus is involved in a traffic accident, she makes a break for it. Lev is a tithe. His sole purpose is to be unwound, and he's been preparing for it his whole life. "Rescued" by Connor, who then teams up with Risa, all Lev wants to do is escape and get on with his unwinding.
Part of the current crop of teen dystopias, Shusterman's tale has some truly horrifying and heartbreaking moments. The teens in this story are not placed in danger by a merciless government, but by their own parents. Told in alternating viewpoints between Connor, Risa, and Lev, the book has sympathetic characters, consistently good writing, and a quick pace. The ending is hopeful, though not happy. I would expect it to appeal to fans of other teen dystopias, as well as those looking for fiction that explores parental abandonment, rights, and responsibilities; law and morality; what it means to be alive; and self determination.

Darkness Creeping : Twenty Twisted Tales by Neal Shusterman

Darkness Creeping collects twenty previously published Neal Shusterman short stories. Each story is introduced by a brief essay explaining where the story came from. (While these introductions are by no means necessary to understand or enjoy the story, they are generally entertaining in their own right, and it's interesting to see where some of the stories came from.)
The collection begins with Catching Cold, about a boy determined to catch the ice cream truck he hears (based on an actual incident in Shusterman's life) and ends with a creepy poem. In between, good vs. evil, people get what they wish for, revenge is taken, masterpieces are created, and most things don't turn out the way people hoped. Of course, for some people, things turn out exactly as they'd hoped.
Recommended especially for teens or older tweens who enjoy creepy horror (as opposed to slasher horror). No profanity that I can recall, no sex or graphic violence.

The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub; read by Frank Muller

Jack Sawyer doesn't want to save the world. He just wants to save his mom.


It’s 1981, and twelve year old Jack is living in the Alhambra Inn with his dying mother. Jack might be able to save her, and maybe someone else in the process. All he has to do is travel to an alternate world, cross the country, find the Talisman, and then… Well, Jack doesn’t know what then. He hopes he can figure it out, though, because it’s the only way to save his mom. And maybe a world or two.

This collaboration between horror heavyweights Stephen King (Carrie, It, The Shining) and Peter Straub (Ghost Story, In the Night Room) has much to recommend it to fantasy, as well as horror, fans. The quest motif is a staple of fantasy fiction, and Jack is a sort of prince in hiding. His mother is a former B movie actress referred to as the Queen of the “B”s, and his Twinner’s mother is Queen of the Territories. (The Territories is parallel world Jack can – must – travel to, and a Twinner is a person’s counterpart in the Territories.) The story runs smoothly and the characters are consistent.
The unabridged digital edition is read by Frank Muller, who reads it like a film noir voiceover. It took some getting used to, but the story is worth the effort.

The Unloved by John Saul [Digital Adio Download ed.]

SPOILERS

The Unloved by John Saul tells the story of Kevin Deveraux and his family -- wife Anne, daughter Julie, and son Jeff. Kevin's much hated, widowed mother is dying and Kevin is summoned home by his sister, Marguerete, a ballet dancer whose dreams were cut short when her hip was broken in an accident. Helene, the mother, is controlling, demanding, and cruel. She bullies Marguerete and is infuriated that she herself only holds the family lands in trust (introducing a plot hole). When she finally dies, her will forces Kevin to stay on so that the disinherited Marguerete can remain at home. The estate lawyer assures Kevin that there is no way around the will, leaving the reader/listener to wonder who the real estate was being held in trust for, if not Kevin, and why the lawyer was apparently unaware of the trust. At any rate, the sweet and meek Marguerete moves into her mother's old rooms and promptly goes all Norman Bates, assuming the personality of her mother, lightly flavored with her own natural insanity. Anne dies when her car is swept into the sea, followed rapidly by several less natural deaths. The kids are eventually saved, but not before nearly everyone around them is murdered by Marguerete.

This is definitely a kids-in-jeopardy story, and just as definitely not a kids-save-the-world one. Julie and Jeff are able to help themselves to a limited extent, but must rely on the adults around them to save them. The murders are described, so there is violence and some gore, but it is not excessive. There is little in the way of the supernatural. Kevin has a premonitory dream, and there are hints that Marguerete is possessed in some way, though not enough to rule out her simply being crazy.

The book is well read by Sandra Burr. The characters have distinct voices with appropriate accents. The pacing and inflection are good.

Recommend to fans of V.C. Andrews for the endangered children, wicked grandmother, Southern setting, and "You have an inheritance you never knew about! Come collect your misery now!" setup.
It's a possible read-alike for Psycho by Robert Bloch. The setup takes much longer, but Psycho fans will likely find post 'round the bend Marguerete worth the wait.
It wouldn't be my first choice for Stephen King fans, though it might appeal to those who are jaded with that author's unnaturally competent kids, and who are willing to trade supernatural evil for the human variety.